Rhubarb and Custer

Its the great plains basing day! It's time to sort out what I have and work out what I need .

Three Companies of cavalry, I need to paint up at least two more.

When it comes to the dismounted troopers, I have six Companies. This is one too many for Custers last stand, but perfect for refighting the Reno hill debunkle.

Crow scouts thinking about collecting some ponies.

Company commands with Lt Cooke and the regimental colours.

It's a nice touch to include loads of shirts and civilian wear into your cavalry units. Lots of personal items were taken along by the troopers and the officers were a law on to themselves.

The big man himself. Not sure if the regimental standard was carried with Custer, but it does make for a great command stand.

It's a groundhog day men! A do or die day.

I used 4mm static grass to give a nice effect with 6mm tufts helping to give some variation in height.

28mm cavalry next to 20mm cavalry.

Desperation is evident in many of the tiny bases, they're great accuses to create little dioramas.

A grizzly end awaits them all... The knife is a piece of flattened brush bristle, with the scalp being a tiny piece of wet wipe. The tiny arrows are bristles from a washing up brush.

 A classic 19th century adventurer.

Near Future Marine

This is just a bit of fun, a plastic Marine from Wargames Atlantic 'Ooh- Raa' box set. These are clearly influenced by the Colonel marines from Alien.

I used some reference from the latest desert conflicts to paint up a realistic looking marine.

The camouflage was created simply with a sponge. Light grey green, stippled with white, then given a wash of green ink. Simple but effective.

To help contrast between the different materials, I gave the armour a gloss varnish to make it pop.

Some sort of border issue going on...

My memory notes for following members of the unit. Looking at my modern research, a lot of kit can vary within a unit, so it'll be nice to add different colour items on the belts etc.

 The gloss on the armour also marks it out as being metal. 

After looking a metal mini's, I'm reminded of just how good these plastic figures are for value.

This was a single figure I had made up and under coated, but after this test model...I really want to do some more.

Basing the 7th WIP

I finally got around to basing the Companies of the 7th. For this I choose a sandy looking product from Luke's APS. Surprisingly it was the New Zealand basing mix that fitted the bill the best. The light sand seemed better the my usual Arid mix.

Onto this light sand I will first add a layer of golden coloured grass. Once dry, I will add patches of 4mm grass with my new applicator. There's also tufts of various colours which can be scattered around too.

As Custer organized his Companies in horse coat colours, it's important to to keep track who is who. The classic being Company 'E', the grey horse Company.

A skirmish line, dismounted and spread out, horse holders to the rear.

A mounted Company I.

The production line. I have another two packs of mounted troops to paint up. This will bring me to the Five Companies of Custer. These five Companies should be good for playing Reno's hill top fight as well.

My kit bashed Crow scouts look good amongst the cavalrymen.

 Not sure if these stickers will last the test of time, we'll have to see.

Gildor's 3rd Company

The finally Company of Gildor is painted and based, awaiting the flocking day.

The red cloaked captain takes his position at the front. I had a spare banner that found it's way onto the base too.

Here we can see the latest two Companies next to an earlier one. I used this earlier base for reference so they should all tie together visually.

A few classic green hoods have found their way into Gildor's ranks.

 Update: Looking at the photos I realised there was one guy missing... I checked the work spaces to no avail, then found him on the floor. He has now been placed in his rightful place back in the shieldwall.

It looks a lot better with more shields up in the front ranks.